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Macular degeneration: 'I've been given my sight back'
Doctors have taken a major step towards curing the most common form of blindness in the UK - age-related macular degeneration.
Douglas Waters, 86, could not see out of his right eye, but "I can now read the newspaper" with it, he says. He was one of two patients given pioneering stem cell therapy at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.
[...] Doctors have devised a way of building a new retinal pigment epithelium and surgically implanting it into the eye. The technique, published in Nature Biotechnology [DOI: 10.1038/nbt.4114] [DX], starts with embryonic stem cells. These are a special type of cell that can become any other in the human body. They are converted into the type of cell that makes up the retinal pigment epithelium and embedded into a scaffold to hold them in place. The living patch is only one layer of cells thick - about 40 microns - and 6mm long and 4mm wide. It is then placed underneath the rods and cones in the back of the eye. The operation takes up to two hours.
Related: British Man Receives World's First Bionic Eye Implant for Macular Degeneration
Stem Cell Therapy for Macular Degeneration: Conflicting Reports
(Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Wednesday March 21 2018, @07:49PM (2 children)
I hope this kind of treatment is made widely available and at afforable cost so as to help thousands of people in the developing world. As we age and as our faculties diminish, it makes some people feel helpless and useless. Sight and hearing are really important for older people.
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 2) by quietus on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:25PM (1 child)
This is a means for when it is (correction:was) too late. Early signs of macular degeneration are easily recognized by an ophthalmologist; the cure (laser treatment) is well-known and takes about half an hour. Pre- and after-treatment consists of simple eye drops, and takes about a month before and after operation. It sounds a beautiful technique, but costs should be measured against the cost of effective prevention.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 22 2018, @12:26PM
No all macular degeneration can be safely lasered - mine is too close to the optic nerve and risks blinding me.